Collections
by kb80
Summary: Just some TerryTen short stuff. Nothing too big.


Burn

When he had discovered that the Jokers hadn't captured her parents, he was overcome with emotion. Not the righteous fury he had expected, but an uncontrollable sadness. He wasn't just burned again. She burned him again.

Drive

When Terry had first met Melanie, he had felt the similarities between them. To some degree, he knew that she led a secret life. A small part of him knew that she would not be able to stay with him forever as he had naively hoped and wished. But he did not care in that moment, which was why he had chosen to drive to their small place on earth to be with each other. Driving usually gave him a sense of elation, not addicting, but present. And right then, he needed every little bit of happiness he could find. Because he knew that she would have been long gone from their place. When he began to break down in the rain when he could not see her, he thought that everything he had known was going to turn out to be true. So when she came sprinting in the pouring rain towards him, and leapt into his outstretched arms, he instantly developed a small hope within him. Maybe, just maybe, they could work out, even if he was the Bat and she one of his rogues.

Nursery Rhymes

"Solomon Grundy born on a Monday" mumbled the towering creature. One wouldn't have been able to make out the words over the monster's heavy breathing unless they were standing directly on top of him, however Terry McGinnis, the vaunted Batman, currently was. He paid no attention to the mumbling of the undead beast he had just defeated, as his mind was wandering other places, namely the elusive burglar Ten, who also happened to be his girlfriend, Melanie Walker, at the time. Each knew of the other's unique nighttime habits, and neither cared, oftentimes their exploits of the previous night were brought up at their coffee table in the mornings, even at times comparing battle stories. One night, Ten would have to fight, in her own artistic way that was only enhanced by her lithe frame, 28 of Gotham's highly trained police officers; that same night Terry would be in the midst of a battle with Inque who had developed the ability to transport using shadows. Their one-ups-manship game was only interrupted on Friday's when they would visit their niece(-in-law) to tell Nursery Rhymes. However the tale of Solomon Grundy was never told, for respect of all the work that Terry had done to keep the timeless monster locked away, and because even the big bad Batman was slightly scared of the zombie.

Smile

The best thing in Terry's life was free, and he thanked whatever gods there may be that he did not have to work to see it, or be on the receiving end of it. He would never understand how with a slight shift in her facial muscles she could turn the toughest man in the city into a pile of mush. Of course, he never let her know that her smile affected him that way, but the way she would flash it at the most opportune times told him that she knew regardless.

Joy

Her laugh broke the slightly uncomfortable silence that had fallen between them. He didn't understand what she was laughing for, he had poured his heart out to her after all, and she laughed at him. He began to become upset, but she grabbed his face and brushed her lips across his "You must not have read my letter Terry, because it quite clearly stated that I would always love you" she gently whispered to him, and he knew true joy in that moment when it was just he, Terry McGinnis, and she Melanie Walker, hugging in the alley behind her workplace.

Luck

They always seemed to find each other, he the superhero, her the villain. From two warring sides they found love and life in the other's arms. Bruce had once referred to them as "two star-crossed lovers" and he had absent-mindedly replied "If you're hoping we kill ourselves over each other, you shouldn't keep your fingers crossed, it'd ruin the luck of the gesture."

Regret

She wouldn't have even noticed his change in demeanor if she had not been with him every day for the past two questioned "Terry, why are you home so late, and why are you drunk?" "I couldn't save them" was his quiet, simple reply.

Box

She squeezed the small box in her pocket, and a smile lit up her face. The box in question contained a ring, that was not too vain, or too unnoticeable. She would have liked it quite nicely as her engagement ring, which it was meant to be. But she would not have loved and adored it as she wished, so she had stolen it from the jewelry store that he had gone to buy it from. She was a thief after all, and her beloved's position as their city's stoic guardian ensured that he would know it was stolen, she had tripped the alarm for this very purpose. In the mornings he would gripe about how every other girl in the city would just tell him that she didn't like the ring, but he found the one who liked to express herself via grand larceny, and she would reply with her knowing smile "you wouldn't let me follow you if you didn't want my opinion."

Acceptance

The most difficult thing about dating Melanie, he decided, was getting everyone else to accept the fact. When Max found out, she had started laughing, assuming it was a joke. When she realized it wasn't she was livid. "How can you be dating a criminal" she had screeched, right before she slammed the door shut in his face. Dana was simply bitter that he had found someone so soon after they had broken up, but he neglected to tell her that he had 'found her' when they were in high school. His mother had taken it well, but she was disappointed that he had not remained with Dana. Bruce had by far the least expected reaction of everyone else's, congratulating him, before demanding to be driven into the upper-class housing of Gotham to visit a Miss Kyle.

Couch

He cherished the nights when he didn't have to go out into the city and try to be a savior for a city that needed one so badly. But it was during times like these when he was alone with her, bodies laying intertwined on their beige leather couch, that he remembered every single one of his regrets. Golem, a kid who was just so fed up being another face in the crowd, another nerdy kid who got picked on, that when he was given amazing abilities he decided to do evil. Jackie's biological father, who had only wanted to raise his daughter but had been turned into an earthen corpse as reward, and resorted to attempting to kidnap his daughter. As the list went on, he came to her. The girl who grew up in the family business of thieving, and who just wanted a way out. He always came to her last, because she was the only one of his regrets that he could say he had righted.

Brave

He was the bravest, most selfless person she knew. And she hated him for it, almost as much as she loved him for it. Why was it him who had to go risk his life night in and night out. Why was it him who came home battered and bruised every night. Why couldn't it be someone, anyone else. But she knew that she couldn't change his mind about being the Bat. She would never know what compelled him to put on that costume and go ignite the raging fire that is fear inside the hearts of the evil men of Gotham. What she did know, was that never in her life had she, or would she, ever meet as brave a man.

Home

When he had originally moved into the apartment, it had been for the privacy. He no longer was required to offer lengthy explanations on the topic of why he was late. The loneliness never bothered him, in part because Max spent the night in the place a considerable amount of the time, but also because he had accepted that he had found a home. Then she came back into his life again. Ten of the Royal Flush Gang, ruthlessly efficient thief. Melanie Walker, girl trying to find her way in the world. She sauntered into his life, this time as one. Melanie had ironically picked up the moniker of Ten by setting the Gotham University gymnastic team record for most ten's in the execution score in a season. That was how he had found her again. He had come in for a late night workout and when he walked into the gymnastics gym, her graceful visage laid siege on his eyesight as she completed a back layout salto. As she finished her graceful routine, she planted and looked up, imagining a judges table and flashing the brightest smile she could muster towards it. She instantly noticed Terry standing in the doorway and quickly jogged towards him, and that was when the loneliness truly began to hit home. After meeting up with one another for months, they officially started to date, and the gaping hole that he felt in his stomach when he was in his apartment deepened. This process continued until he gave in and asked her to move in with him, and her answer was laced with a sense of pure elation "yes" she had managed to whisper as her emotions overcame her. They had spent the rest of that day moving her things into the apartment, and from that moment on-wards, Terry McGinnis had found a home.

Competition

They were both fierce competitors, she had quickly come to realize. Most things between them was an unspoken competition, who could get into the elevator the fastest, who could play the Gamestation better. They even had a chart with the amount of time it took each of them to take the trash out each week hanging on the side of their refrigerator. So when he had proposed a competition of words to her one day while they were sitting at a coffee shop, she couldn't help but take the bait. The challenge was to communicate to the other what they were thinking with the fewest words possible, the lowest number of words would win. The game continued even as they left the coffee shop and walked around Gotham, ending up at the spot where the two had originally met in front of the clock tower. He had a slight advantage until he got down on one knee, under their street lamp, on a rainy night just like the one they had met on, pulled out a small box, opened it revealing an extravagant but not suffocating ring. Her heart soared at the sight, but that was nothing compared to the full flight her heart took when he mouthed the word 'forever' to her.


End file.
